Ever shoot an antique?

[monotonous_iterancy]

Every time I see an old antique gun, I wonder if it's still functioning. I'm sure a lot of people are of the opinion not to fire antique guns even if they are still safe to fire simply out of the rarity and collectable status.

Still, the idea intrigues me. Have you ever fired a really, really old gun?

 

[General Geoff]

You'll have to define 'antique.' I routinely shoot firearms from the WWII era, which at this point are about 70 years old. They do not worry me in the least as far as function goes.

 

[rcmodel]

I have several old Winchesters & Colts from the late 1800's early 1900's I shoot as much or more then the modern guns in my collection.

If you are talking 1700 or so?
No.

I don't have anything that old.

But lots of people do, and they shoot the snot out of them.

The stopping point comes when the value or history of the antique gun exceeds the risk of breaking something that can never be replaced.

rc

 

[hovercat]

1891 Argentine Mauser, 1905 Winchester self loading, why not shoot them! My oldies are not new collector grade but shooters.

 

[PRD1]

Yes...

many. The oldest original arm I've ever fired was a German wheellock rifle made ca. 1560.
I've fired several flintlocks in the 200-250 year old range.
And I shoot my antique cartridge guns all the time - the oldest currently being a U.S. Model 1871 Springfield rolling block .50-70, though I have owned and shot earlier breechloaders - Spencer, Sharps,Albini-Braendlin, Peabody, etc.
I don't keep guns I can't shoot.

mhb - Mike

 

[PavePusher]

My grandmother owns an 1896 Winchester in .30-30. Serial # puts it's date of manufacture approx. 1898. It gets fired a few times a year. A few years back, before turning 90, she and my mother got a deer with it.

 

[mljdeckard]

Do my grandfather's 1917 Enfield, M-1 carbine, and home sawed-off 16 ga model 97 count?

 

[jr_roosa]

My mainstay Garand is a WWII receiver. It's all been reparked by the CMP, so no real antique value, at least not for another 100 years or so. My next match gun will be built off a WWII Garand.

My plinker single shot .22 is from the 1930s.

My oldest gun is a 1911 from 1913. I shoot it from time to time, but the barrel is bigger than the bullets and so they go tumbling into the target.

I only own maybe 3 guns that were made after 1975 or so. Maybe some are more retro than antique, I guess.

-J.

 

[AethelstanAegen]

Two of my favorite guns to shoot these days are my Winchester 1897 and my S&W Lemon Squeezer. They're both from either 1898 or 1899 (waiting to hear back on the S&W). They both work great and have a lot of character. The S&W is reliable enough that I do sometimes use it as my carry gun (it's smaller and lighter than anything else I have)...sure it's an anemic cartridge but I can carry it in situations I really couldn't carry my other guns well concealed.

In general, my collection is trending more and more to the older stuff (I should point out too, that I'm not an old fuddie-duddie, but in my mid-20s). With the exception of single shot .22/12ga and my SA XD (first gun, so never going to sell) everything is now either from the 1940s and earlier or a replica of something from that era. I just wasn't enjoying the more modern stuff as much as the older stuff, so it was sold off.

 

[walking arsenal]

I shot a 1946 upright Kelvinator fridge once.

 

[JRs12Valve]

I used to carry an old S&W top break in .32 S&W made in 1880. Shot it once or twice a week, sometimes more. Made some hollowpoints for it too.

Also shoot an 1876 Winchester .45-70, made in the 80's. Well, 1880's.

I also shoot an 1858 Remington, and 1847 Walker Colt. Of course, those are made in 2012 and 2013 hahaha

 

[Kuyong_Chuin]

I think the oldest guns I have ever shot that we're not muzzle loaders were the ones my great grandfather brought back with him from WWI. He had a pair of M1917 pistols I think they were Colts 45's but may have been S&W' s, I don't remember and I have not seen them since he died in 82 @ 97 years old and a M1903 30-06 he had as well. I have also shot a double barrel muzzle loader 10 gauge shotgun but not sure how old it was. I belonged to my "Papa" too.

 

[monotonous_iterancy]

I think the oldest guns I have ever shot that we're not muzzle loaders were the ones my great grandfather brought back with him from WWI.

Was it common practice for soldiers to be permitted to take their issued weapons home with them? When did that stop?

 

[hoghunting]

I have a L.C. Smith exposed hammer SxS 12 ga manufactured in 1912 that I restocked because the original stock crumbled due to over oiling. I use it for dove season as it is so much fun to shoot.

 

[vagunmonkey]

I have an original 1860's Smith carbine I shoot 150-200 black powder rounds a month through

 

[mnrivrat]

Eli Whiney model 1812 flintlock musket still shoots just fine. Mine has been shortened, so much of the collector value is gone, but the gun is in good shootable condition with reasonable loads.
With shot it makes a good wabbit gun !

 

[Kuyong_Chuin]

Was it common practice for soldiers to be permitted to take their issued weapons home with them? When did that stop?

It was common in the civil war days but in WWI they could purchase their weapons upon discharge from what I was told and he bought his from that program. It was also common to bring back war trophies even in the Vietnam days but not sure how legal those were and I do not know anyone personally that did. I know in WWII it was common to bring home captured weapons but you have to have the proper papers for it to be legal.

 

[Newcatwalt]

Lately I've been shooting a Mauser M1914 (1915 or early 1916), a byf 41 Luger, and an Astra 600/43. I used to shoot a lot of other early automatics but I sold them years ago - had a lot of fun though....

 

[Rockwolf66]

The oldest rifle that I have shot was a spencer carbine. The geek in me wants to find a shootable Puckel gun. Then put the video up on YouTube with a very snarky political message. Even better load it with canister and use several of those Gel torsos for added effect.

 

[Radagast]

1899 Swedish Mauser.
Pre-WWI C96 Mauser.
1880s Otis A Smith .38 S&W top break revolver.
1916 No1 MKIII.

Those are the oldest I've shot. Plenty of guns from WWII, 50s and 60s too, but if it was made after Old Fuff was born its not an antique.

 

[natman]

I shoot a 577/450 Martini Henry from 1887. It's South African marked, it could have been at Rourke's Drift.

The only gun I have older than that is a Golcher lock percussion muzzleloader that I would guess is from the 1850s-60s.

I don't plan on shooting that.

 

[caribou]

I have had several Mosin Nagants of various flavor with "antique' recivers and such, made in the 1890's, one complete M-91 made in 1893 being the oldest.
I also had done quite a bit of shooting with home rolled .42 Berdan through a 1876 Berdan carbine, no problem

 

[RON in PA]

I no longer own them, but back in the 1970s I had and shot a Remington cap and ball 45, a Smith 50 cal. carbine and a Springfield 1863 58 cal rifle-musket.

 

[CajunBass]

Define "antigue." It seems these days a lot of people consider anything not made of plastic to be an "antigue." I'm not sure myself if these qualify, but they're the oldest I've got. Not the oldest I've fired.

1924 Parker Trogan 12 ga



1938 Hunter Special 20 ga.



1955 Smith & Wesson M&P 38



If you go by the standard the Commonwealth of Virginia sets for "antigue" automobile tags (20 years), I've only got a couple of guns that aren't "antigues."

 

[Carl N. Brown]

The 1968 Gun Control Act established 1898 (70 years before the Act) as the legal cut off date. Since then, ATF has established "fifty years old"--with some exceptions for out of production guns--as "Curio and Relic" more likely to be owned as a collectible than used as a weapon, with a formal list that includes moving some NFA (Title II) firearms (pre-1934 short barrel trappers, orginal C96 w. shoulder stock, etc., requiring Form 4) to GCA (Title I) status (ordinary rifle, shotgun or handgun, requiring Form 4473).


The closest to "antique" I shoot are:
o Mauser C96, ser no in the 107xxx range, probably 1912-1913.
o Webley .455 Mark IV, BP proofmarks VR Queen Victoria, pre 1902.


"shooting antiques" I could tell tales of scrounging items from a collapsed, abandoned shed from my grandparents' farm or from my wifes' grandparents' homestead for plinking targets, but I wouldn't want to give an antique picker a heart attack. (Or would I: "first we shot the hangy down crystal bobs from rim of the Tiffany lampshade, then we took turns calling out the color of the stained glass panes we'd shoot next")